A while ago, I was scheduled to share the Word at a women’s retreat in a church four hours away from my home. My husband and I stayed at a hotel near the church the night before to get to the retreat in the morning. As we walked into the hotel, I asked my husband, “Do you know where the white jacket is that I am going to wear tomorrow?” That’s when we realized my jacket had been left at home. I had no choice but to wear a shirt I had brought with me and not dress that day with the formal image the occasion deserved.
I couldn’t help but ask God . . . “Lord, why did I leave my jacket? You could have reminded me!” In that moment, God made me feel that there was something He wanted to teach me and to share with the women at the retreat.
The retreat’s theme was “Clothed,” inspired by Colossians 3, where the apostle Paul emphasizes the importance of being clothed with Christ.
When we receive Christ as the King and Lord of our lives, we die to our old way of life, to our old self, to be born again in Christ. As a result, our character, behavior, values, and priorities change. Paul explained this change in us by comparing it to a change of clothes—”those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ” (Galatians 3:27).
To be clothed involves being unclothed first. We must take off the old, worn, stained garment of the old woman to put on the new garment of Christ. This refers to a spiritual transformation of our inner self that sheds its old habits and practices to live according to divine principles. The Lord clothes us with forgiveness, grace, mercy, but also with His character, values, and mission. When we are in Christ, we have died to our “self” so that He may live. We have renounced what “I want” to do what He wants. That is the new garment.
So why did I leave the white jacket at home? The Lord showed me that we often want to live our new life in Christ without letting go of the old garment. In other words, we put on a “white coat” to change our old “style,” our old self, just a little bit. So instead of taking everything off, we continue to wear our old, worn out, stained clothes and hide them under a “white coat” that looks godly. Moreover, we remain in control as we go through life, deciding for ourselves when to wear the white coat and when to leave it at home. And in the end, we are the ones who continue to dress in our own closet, deceiving ourselves and others, but never Christ, who cannot be deceived.
Sisters, Christ did not die to leave us the same. His sacrifice was not half-hearted. He gave Himself completely. Philippians 2:7-8 says that Christ “emptied himself by taking the form of a servant . . . he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.” Christ asks nothing of us that He has not already accomplished. He died and rose again to strip us completely of our old self and give us a clean and spotless garment. The only thing He asks of us is that we surrender ourselves completely to Him, stripping ourselves completely of our old selves.
The good news of the gospel tells us that we do not have to do this on our own. The Lord is the one who clothes us; our part will only be to position ourselves each day in humility so that we can let go of our “old garment” and let Him clothe us each day through His Word. Only then will we be women, wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters conformed to Christ. Prayerfully begin to clean out your spiritual closet so that the Lord can update it with the new clothes He has for you, according to His character and perfect will.
“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the Image of its creator” (Colossians 3:9-10).
